Dinoderus

noun

Di·nod·er·us

dīnädərəs

: a genus of chiefly tropical small cylindrical beetles (family Bostrychidae) that have the dorsal surface covered with short dense erect hairs and that live as borers in woody plants (such as bamboos)

Word History

Etymology

borrowed from New Latin, borrowed from Greek deinós "inspiring dread or awe, powerful, marvelous" (here taken to mean "large") + -o- -o- + -deiros "having a neck (of such a sort)," derivative of deirḗ, derḗ "neck, throat"

Note: Genus name introduced by the British entomologist James Francis Stephens (1792-1852) in Illustrations of British Entomology, vol. 3 (London, 1830), p. 352. Stephens appends to the name the etymological footnote "deinos, magnus; deirē, collum" (Latin magnus, "large," collum "neck"). The description of the species notes "head short, transverse, with the neck thick."